Ostracon

A collection of sharp, witty, and impeccably crafted poems from A. E. Stallings, the award-winning poet and translator.

Autumn cyclamen,
boobytrapping underfoot
like a mis-timed Spring,

clutch of shame’s blushes,
flock of flamingos balanced
on slender stemware

An expert at traditional received forms, A. E. Stallings is also a poet of restless experiment. In lines of supple free verse, or rich rhyme and meter, the poems of Ostracon are filled with sprightly precision. From Athens, the cradle of democracy, the poet contemplates the 2024 election. A caryatid steps off her marbled plinth and makes dinner, “she slices / The fluted celery stalk into drums, / The mushrooms into ionic capitals.” A perfect egg is cracked and peeled. Throughout, the wild sea crashes and recedes. There’s a richness to sensory detail, a fullness of image and place, be that Athens or England or farther afield. With humor and her characteristic contemplative wit, Stallings's latest collection is worldly and wordy and wise.